Cabo San Lucas Travel Guide

This small resort town sits right on the edge of the Baja California Peninsula, known as Land's End. San Lucas is the only coastal resort in Mexico with a nature preserve within it's city limits.

Despite it's growing popularity Cabo San Lucas still manages to retain a small-town feel. A few of the town's original residents demanded this land be preserved; otherwise hotels and condos would fill the town's entire perimeter. This area is currently the seventh most popular tourist destination in Mexico and the second fastest growing resort in the country.

Since Cabos San Lucas offered no source of fresh water and little protection during the storm season, it was ignored by the Spanish. English pirates used the harbor as a hiding place for attacks on Manila galleons.

By the 1930s, around 400 people lived in this small fishing village. The Cape sportfishing craze of the 1950s and 1960s expanded the population to around 1,500. This resort again had a splurge in growth as the highway was completed and airport access became available.

Cabo San Lucas was made famous for it's world class big game sportfishing, notably the remarkable Marlin.

The construction of Los Cabos International Airport near San José del Cabo in the 1980's brought the area within reach of vacationers who didn't have the time for a six-day drive from the border to the cape and back.

Some of Cabos' most popular beaches include the following:

Playa El Médano- the most popular local beach. It is Baja's closest equivalent to Hawaii's Waikiki Beach in terms of the concentration of sunbathers during peak vacation periods.

Médano is one of the few local beaches where swimming is safe year-round.

Playa del Amor, the next popular beach, can only be reached by boat or by a difficult climb over two rock headlands along the ocean.

Playa Solmar is a huge beach running along the southwestern edge of the cape.

People fly, drive, and boat to Cabo San Lucas to soak up the plentiful sunshine and enjoy the abundance of its seaside pleasures. Beach vendors rent pangas, jet skis, inflatable rafts, sailboards, snorkeling equipment, volleyball equipment, palapas, and beach furniture. The southeast end of the bay features a series of coral-encrusted rocks suitable for snorkeling. Scuba diving is popular offshore.